I Miss, But Good Riddance!

[Davey Do]

I would work 

every Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Wrongway Regional Medical Center, mostly on geriatric psych.

And every Friday since I became eligible for Social Security, in February 2019, I would have the same conversation with myself:

I was terminated from Wrongway March 26, 2020 and have since retired.

In order to be more appreciative of my current status, I will often look at the clock and say to myself, "I would be doing this right now if I were still working".

I truly liked being a nurse. I believe nursing was my calling and I did a pretty darn good job at it. But I do not miss working as a nurse one bit. Not one iota. 

I do not miss anyone with who I worked. None of the duties or responsibilities, or even the times that shine in my mind, and of course I do not miss all the BS.

What would/will you miss about nursing when you retire?

What will you be glad not to have to deal with, or miss the least?.

And please, give a specific example or examples so we all can get a real feel for your situation.

This could be a good cathartic experience and/or allow you to look forward to the possibilities after the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thanks!

[JBMmom, MSN, NP]

I should preface this by saying I do not wish for people to become critically ill, otherwise I sound like an awful person. However ,some day I will miss:

getting an admission of a patient that doesn't look like they will make it, and then leaving at the end of my shift seeing them better, and a few days later, when they can use the call bell, moving them out to the floor. 

I do like the hustle and bustle of a night when it seems like things are on the edge of falling apart, but then we pull through and go home with everyone in one piece.

The feeling of getting someone back after they coded is always pretty good. 

The other night I had an hour or so and combed my patient's hair. 

Some three am laughs with coworkers at things that would never be funny to my non-nurse friends, or at any time other than three am. 

I will not miss:

Getting punched in the face/peed on/spit at/sworn at/ etc. by a detoxing patient. 

Being told that I'm one of the "ICU ***es" just because I value my job and my patients more than my social media status, or I'm mean because I don't tell the brand new nurse, on their phone all the time, that they are the best thing to happen to critical care since the beginning of time, very nonsupportive. 

Being told by management that they would rather have a nurse with a great attitude, which means no constructive feedback- just smile, than one that has knowledge and experience. 

Tripling assignments and getting flack from the other nurses because I'm in charge and so I must have picked them on purpose for the bad assignment. 

I'm sure I'll think of more..... 

[Davey Do]

1 hour ago, JBMmom said:

I should preface this by saying I do not wish for people to become critically ill

So, JBMmom, does that mean you wish for people to become just a tad bit ill? 

1 hour ago, JBMmom said:

However, some day I will miss:

getting an admission of a patient that doesn't look like they will make it, and then leaving at the end of my shift seeing them better, and a few days later, when they can use the call bell, moving them out to the floor. 

Yes, that is a charge.

I enjoyed the feeling of therapeutically intervening in a psychiatric crisis situation and possessing the ability to deal with it and not let it escalate and get out of hand.

However, I have an attitude that that was my job, but I don't need it to feel self-satisfaction.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons why some people work until they are incapable of working any longer.

They are their job, and without their job, they are not them?

[JBudd, MSN]

I will miss being a nurse; it stopped being the first item in my "who I am list" a long time ago though.  

I have been in the ER for at least 25 years; moved from newbie ER to competent, to charge nurse running traumas, then backed off again to bedside, and after going back from a bout of cancer, mostly triage.

I would miss that affirmation of "yeah I called that one!" and got the pt headed in the right direction (stroke, MI, SVT, DV).  I like being the one who can get a kiddo to calm down and cooperate, de-escalating a situation, reassuring a frantic person.  Getting that really hard task accomplished that others couldn't and asked for my help with.  As with JBMom, being a rescuer.  Also being there to protect my coworkers (yeah, martial arts training comes in handy).

Won't miss lousy staffing, where the waiting room backs up for hours because we can't get people onto the floors and open up ER beds.  Or getting harrassed for my political views!  Following someone who can't/won't do all the things they are supposed to (yes you really do have to chart an assessment on your pt, and whether or not you changed the foley out, and for Pete's sake put your sharps in the bucket!!)